


Reunion

by K4t3yK4t



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dragon's wing, Embers, F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Vathara, based on a fanfic, post-epilogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 03:11:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K4t3yK4t/pseuds/K4t3yK4t
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After six years, the Blind Bandit returns to Dragon's Wing. Just a little one-shot that has the potential for something more should the urge strike.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Embers](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/163073) by Vathara. 



> I do not own any of the characters. Original ATLA characters are property of Nickelodeon; plot and character elaboration belong to Vathara’s beautiful Embers story, which to me is more canon than the cartoon. I’m only writing this to appease the fluff-bunnies that hop around inside my head.

_Ow…_

Zuko winced, peeling himself away from the wall. A quick, habitual once-over told him nothing had been broken from the impact, but then again, he hadn’t expected there to be. The Blind Bandit was careful where she threw her punches – or in this case, her friends.

“Getting slow, Sparky.” The words were cackled with an impish delight so familiar that it almost hurt as much as the back of his head. Zuko allowed himself a slight smile in response, which he knew she could probably feel in the shift in his weight. Zuko flicked the sleeves of his robes back into rights, shrugging to re-settle his dao more easily against his back.  

“Good to see you too, Toph, I–” His words got lost in his throat, and his one good-eye widened in surprise. “ _Toph?”_

It had been six years. Six years since the skies had bled under the fury of Sozin’s comet. Six years, since Aang had thwarted the Face Stealer’s attempt to destroy humanity. Six years since he had watched the diminutive mountain that was Toph clamber onto the back of the Avatar’s sky bison to “kick him into mastering Earth _properly_.” He’d hoped she’d succeeded; anybody willing to  _voluntarily_  teach the flighty Airbender anything was due proper respect, regardless of any deals made before or after the fact.

Toph wasn’t  _diminutive_  anymore. Since he’d last seen her, she had skyrocketed like a willow-pine sapling in good soil; she was nearly as tall as he was. Sure as ever, she was standing barefoot – of course – on the pathway, hands on her hips, grinning in his direction. Short, sure limbs had grown long, wrapped in wiry muscle, half-hidden by the familiar gold-and-green she had always worn. Well, with the exception of breaking into the Fire Nation.

“Geez, it hasn’t been that long.” Toph was saying, stalking toward him with the easy grace that made people forget she was blind. “You jumped so bad it’s like I didn’t give you any warning.” She flashed him another grin. Zuko just shook his head, turning to lead her through the town in an impromptu tour. “Asagitatsu been keeping her cool, then?”

“As much as she can, yes.” Zuko groped for conversation topics, trying to think of things to tell her. Six years had gone by so fast for him, rebuilding Dragon’s Wing, and keeping the massive volcano content; Where did he even _start? “_ She um.. Recognizes you.”

“Yeah, I could tell when I stepped onto the dock.” Toes wriggled into the stone of the path, softening it to ashy silt. “She seems a lot calmer.”

That was another thing. Toph had come by  _boat._ Toph  _hated_  boats, they left her blind and helpless with no Earth or metal to cling to. But there it was, blue sail fluttering in the breeze that swept through the caldera.  _Blue sail, water tribe… Sokka’s tribe._

But it made sense, if she wasn’t hanging around Aang anymore.

“You didn’t come with Aang,” Zuko would  _not_  let accusation slip into his voice, he  _would not._  Would  _not_ tell her how his heart had leapt into his throat when he had seen Appa fly over Dragon’s Wing two autumns past, straight to the temple without a backwards glance.

 _It had been six years,_  a part of him thought bitterly,  _And not even a single note._

 _Right, because Toph is such a literary person_. He snapped back at himself.

“Uh, Sparky? You okay?” Toph tilted her head, reaching out to wrap slightly gritty fingers around his forearm. “Your pulse just spiked.” She frowned, evidently trying to dissect what was running through his head by reading his breathing and heartbeat. “Course I didn’t come with Twinkletoes, he was on his tour through the Air Temples to see how the airbenders were shaping up with Katara. Wasn’t about to waste that much time with him where I couldn’t chuck rocks at his head.” She shook her own, negating the idea.

“Nah I caught one of Sokka’s ships and came back to the Earth Kingdom.” There was something she wasn’t saying, Zuko could almost taste it. He waited,  _patiently_ , for her explanation. Toph took a breath or two, then, seemingly making up her mind, trudged on. “Went to Omashu for a bit, traded bending styles with King Bumi. The guy’s as scatterbrained as Twinkletoes is half the time, but he’s  _solid_  when it comes to bending. I flattened him.” She grinned, unable to keep from showing off a little.

“You took on Bumi?” Zuko wasn’t surprised, she was the best Earthbender he knew.

“Yeah. He said something about taking over Omashu after he finally kicked it.” She shrugged. “Told him I’d think about it.” Toph grew more quiet, more unlike herself. “Then… I got a letter from home. My Dad died.”

Zuko winced, the pain in her voice as blunt as a cliffside.

“Toph I’m sorry,” He began, then faded. He wasn’t good with words, and this… Well, this was a whole barrel of viper-eels that he just didn’t want to pry open. He was just beginning to figure out what family really meant, especially with Aunt Amaya and the girls. Toph’s situation had been as equally screwed up as his… Words just didn’t seem enough, even if he  _were_  good with them.

The Earthbender raised one shoulder in a shrug, though the way those shoulders hunched and the way she centred her stance told Zuko about how much she was still hurting, louder than any of her words could have.

“Mom asked me to come back to the funeral.” She went on doggedly, scrunching her toes in the ground as if to huddle away from the breeze that blew off the sea as much of the memory. “I went… How could I  _not,_  he was my dad…” Shoulders straightened suddenly, bracing for hit. “Then after Dad’s burial, Mom corners me and begs me to come home. Tells me about how horrible it must have been,  _abducted_  by the Avatar and  _forced_  to face the Fire Lord.” She huffed, kicking a stray stone off the path. “I was still just her helpless blind daughter.”

Zuko winced. Nobody made Toph do anything. Not even the Avatar. If that’s what she endured going home to, Zuko couldn’t blame her for leaving again. He wondered if the blind one in that family was really Toph.

“After that, I left again, fast as I could. Didn’t know what I wanted to do now.” She wrinkled her nose slightly, apparently thinking about what the rest of her friends had been getting up to. “So… I came back here.”

Silence stretched between them, and Zuko shifted uneasily. How did you even respond to that? Toph was holding it together so far, but he could see in the set of her shoulders and the way she kept kneading the ground with her toes that it was eating at her. He opened his mouth, about to say something, only to snap it shut again when he caught a flash of red-and blue dashing up the path toward them.

“Cousin Zuko!” The cry was unmistakable, and Zuko almost instinctively shifted his stance to brace for impact. Toph’s face was priceless as she felt the two little girls that pelted into Zuko’s midsection.

“Who’s this? She one of ours?”  
  
“Doesn’t look like one of ours, too scruffy looking.”  
  
“That’s mean! You don’t look scruffy ma'am! You’re really pretty,  _honest!”_

“ _Zuko,_ ” He cringed when he heard the whine, “Jinhai isn’t letting us practice with him again! You’re his teacher, you can  _make_  him!”

“Yeah! And I even  _promised_  I wouldn’t throw snowballs at him again!”

Heaving a world-weary sigh, Zuko crouched down to the height of the identical girls.

“Chulyin, you said that the last time too, and yet Jinhai was soaked the last time you three ‘trained’ together. He won’t trust you until you actually keep your word. You dishonoured him by lying.”

The little girl with dark hair tied up into twin buns pouted. Her sister stood beside her, defiant.

“She didn’t lie!”

“Oh? And I suppose  _you_  bent the water out of the well, then?” Zuko’s retort was met with silence, and he shook his head in exasperation. “Go and see if some of the others will train with you. I’m busy.” The two girls pouted again, but ran off, casting looks over their shoulders at the strange Earthbender. Zuko rose to his full height once more and turned, only to be met with Toph’s wide grin.

“What?” He demanded a little too sharply, a sudden wash of nervousness urging on the outburst.

“You’re doing well here, Sparky. You fit.” Toph grinned again, then cast blind eyes around the caldera, seeing Dragons’ Wings in her own unique way. She couldn’t possibly know the way that simple sentence warmed Zuko, filling him with pride for the place he created and the people he protected.

“I think I’m going to like staying here.”

 _“What?!”_ The yelp resounded throughout the village, and a flock of sparrowkeets lifted into the air in alarm.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: So this isn’t an actual ATLA fic, but rather a fic following the conclusion of Vathara’s Embers. To me, Embers is canon, and therefore, I attempted to hold true to the way that Vathara wrote the characters. This took me forever to write though, (literal months) because I kept waffling back and forth trying to coax myself to write fanfiction again. So, PLEASE tell me what you think, truthfully of this. It’s been so long, and I have NO idea if I’m any good anymore.
> 
> True to Vathara’s naming practices, I tried to give the twins relevant names. (These are Iroh and Amaya’s twins, in case you didn’t know) Chulyin is an Inuit name that means “raven”, according to the internet. Her sister’s name is Ren, which means “water lily” in Japanese. Chulyin is the water bender, and Ren is the firebender.


End file.
